Wanderlust 2026 - weeks fourteen to twenty-six - Paper Alchemy (part one)

 I was really looking forward to the Paper Alchemy theme for the art journaling course, as I really enjoy working with paper and was eager to see what we would be creating.  It didn't disappoint as these were some of my favourite weeks so far.

Making journals has featured several times in this theme and this journal has pages made using calico, cotton and tracing paper.  The pages sometimes have various layers on them, including gesso mixed with plaster of paris and texture paste, as well as collage.

We worked on the pages, poking through them with an awl and burning through them (this shows one of the tracing paper pages on the right).

We also put items behind the pages and then sanded off the gesso/plaster of paris mix, leaving the image - in this case, paperclips.  The journal is small and introduced me to lots of different techniques, including the binding, where the pages are sewn together, the covers placed over the top and the pages are folded back and glued over the spine. I loved making this!

Another journal made using a masterboard.  The black squiggles represent ancient writing and we had to run the page under a tap before the writing was dry so that the writing was faded and blurred, which worried me initially but which worked well, as the paper had been layered with collage and acrylic paint first and been left to dry.

Collage decorations were added to the pages.

The words on this page were taken from the scrap of book page I used and they jumped out at me.  I love serendipity!

Collaging a scene was enjoyable too, and we added details to our collaged paper. I have a large collection of painted pages, so it was good to be able to use a few of them.

Another journal, but as my main art journal was getting rather bulky, I decided to recreate smaller pages on the page.  (I have since decided to make the extra journal but not add it to my main journal, so this may feature in another post).

Top left is a pop-out/exploding/flower page with stamped art words. 

Behind the starry door is a stamped eye.

The collaged book page door reveals a fold out.

Finally, a gel plate printed door reveals a spinner (with some of my favourite bought tissue paper on the left, echoing some of the colours).

More to come in part two. 

Wanderlust 2026 - weeks seven to thirteen - roots and wings

As promised, here are the other pages of my Art Journal course which I particularly enjoyed, from the first theme of Roots and Wings.  Above is a nameless photograph of a member of my Dad's side of the family.  We have a lovely Victorian album but absolutely no idea who any of these people were, which is really sad.  The photos were taken in studios in Scotland.  We had to look into our ancestry and choose some art work to turn into stamps.  I chose ancient Celtic symbols carved into rocks.  We also incorporated some weaving which was fiddly, but the end result is very pleasing.  

Using vibrant watercolour inks was the next media to use to create a sort of map of challenges and happy things in our practice. 

This week was all about creating a Polish style of hanging decoration.  As I am keeping everything in my journal, I  translated this to a 'washing line' style of decoration.

Creating our own inks was the next challenge and I used walnut ink and tea for the backgrounds and stamping, with the bright yellow turmeric ink for highlights.

Probably my favourite week was the one by Alison Bomber who I follow on Youtube.  We used a multitude of media for this triptych and I used crackle paste for the first time.  It was very satisfying (once I had got the lid off - and Chris had to help me with that!)  I added pressed leaves and flowers from the garden, which I had collected last year.

Finally, this week was a gentle journey into collage and thinking about a safe and happy place.  

So, on to the next theme which is Paper Alchemy (should be right up my street!)

Wanderlust 2026 - First seven weeks - roots and wings

The art journal course I have been doing for several years is well underway and the theme was 'roots and wings'.  It has moved to intermediate skills and slightly away form always being pages in a journal.  However, I am keeping my work in a journal because I don't have space for 'things' to be on display.  It will be a challenge for some weeks, transferring 3D to 2D, but that will be fun in itself.  As last year, I won't show every week, just the weeks I particularly enjoyed.  Above was week one, where we were encouraged to use a big sheet of paper and be free, then cut it down.  I enjoyed making all the swooping brush marks.

This week was about someone who inspired us, so I made a tribute to my Granny. There are scanned watercolour paintings from when she was at school as well as a watercolour from when she was in Australia.  I have inherited a love of art and nature from her as well as enjoying sewing.  

Creating natural dyes was the focus of this week. I used walnut ink, tea and the bright yellow is turmeric. 

I so enjoy making books and journals too, so this week was really right up my street.  My little book has a pocket to live in.  We were encouraged to think about our dreams and what we hope for ourselves in the future.

This is the front with a handmade bird stamp, texture paste and a little fabric collage. The binding thread is decorated with beads.

Inside the book are pages including stamps, material, cut outs, tracing paper pages and quotes.

Found poetry on the left and a material flap on the right...

...which shows the word dream through a cut out page.

More stamps.

A final quote.  More to come in another post...

Wanderlust 2025 - part two

I've completed the second part of the online art journaling course that is Wanderlust and the themes this time were Personality, Feelings, Senses.  I have picked my favourite pages or the pages I most enjoyed making to show you.  Above is a linocut printed face from my imagination (we could choose our own face, but I decided that wasn't something I wanted to include) together with some resist watercolour patterns, some stamping and some stitching.  I really liked the stitching and have used it in other pages.  I also would like to use it in some other mixed media pieces which are going round my head at the moment.

For this one, the teacher was focusing on the colours of lakes and streams, but as it was allium time in the garden, I focused on the colours I could see there.  The watercolour circles with different techniques - wet on wet, wet on dry etc. are strung together and make a hanging decoration, should you want to do that.

I enjoyed using the bright colours in this page which was fun to make.

You'll see more of the stitching here. The background technique was messy but really fun as it was all about adding different media to tissue paper, including gesso, watercolour, acrylic ink, colour burst/pixie powder/infusions (water soluble dye powders some with added mica or walnut ink), alcohol ink. They were left to dry and then scrunched up, smoothed out then wrinkled as pieces were glued down to provide some texture.  It was very freeing.  The pocket on the left includes a tag covered with the tissue paper really smoothed out and a colour swatch piece that was hanging about.

This page was made in the teacher's style (Dyan Reaveley).  Bold colours, big shapes.  It is quite a textured page as the strips on the trees are collaged on, the trunks are embossed, the flower centre is sticking up and has a button in the middle, and the blue heart is card embossed with ultra high embossing powder (several times) and then stamped into while still warm.  The two hearts in the trees are covered with 'Glossy Accents' which is a product that dries to a resin-like finish.

Finally, here is a portrait of someone.  In the lesson, she was described as a 'forager'.  We had to make leaves from gel printed tissue paper or tracing paper, or copy paper.  Before I collaged the leaves on, I showed Chris the watercoloured face and he said she had a look of a 'Svetlana', someone from Eastern Europe.  The face is created using layers of watercolour in a single shade, then a bit of coloured pencil. I turned 'Svetlana' into a forest goddess, with her leaf costume.  

I wonder what the next twelve weeks will bring.

Wanderlust 2025

I am well into Wanderlust 2025, the year-long mixed media art journaling course which I have been doing since 2021.  This year, they have changed the format to 12 week blocks.  I have decide to choose my highlights to share, rather than each and every week, so here they are. Above was a lovely watercolour week, creating a sunset.  I really enjoyed using the big flat brushes to try to get a smooth gradation of colours.

This one took a while as we had to go through our stash finding all the collage pieces to add to the circles.  I love the happy colour-filled result though.

The final few weeks of this first section was all about books.  We had to make a journal ready to fill with whatever we wanted.  I wanted to have my journal in a pocket on the page, so made a smaller and thinner one.  As Kate Crane was the teacher for this lesson, I made my journal using my Kate Crane designed stamps and stencils and using some of the skills I have got from her other lessons and courses.

The left page was revisiting a previous Wanderlust lesson of hers. The page on the right was a repeated stamp of hers with dots of colour.

Her stamps and stencils also feature on these pages.

The mandala design on the left was inspired from one of her courses, while on the right is a gel print using her stencils and then one of her stamps.

The penultimate week of this first block was making an accordion journal and then doing some contour sketches.  I really enjoyed doing both of these and the journal I made above is again small enough to sit in a pocket inside my main journal.

The final week was making an altered book journal, which I have done, but it won't fit into the main journal, so I created a page about books instead.  I found some great quotes and again, this is a happy page.

Happy New Year 2025

Happy New Year and I would like to send you good wishes for 2025. Yet again, the year seems to have gone quickly, so it is time to look forward with plans for 2025 and revisit aims from last year.

(Photo of Big Ben off the TV at midnight)

Read interesting books - this is never a difficult one for me. I have read a total of 88 books this year, including all the Brother Cadfael murder mysteries. Other books I have enjoyed are Divine Might: Goddesses in the Greek myths and Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes; Frank and Red by Matt Coyne; Berserker by Adrian Edmondson, The Socialites by Caroline Lamond and Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher.  I have (of course) also revisited Miss Marple stories by Agatha Christie and various other books by Jane Austen, which I read on a pretty regular basis.  Reading interesting books will definitely continue through 2025. 

(All the photos above and below are from the Care December 2024 course - the Pink Edition)

Be Creative (using what I have) - I have certainly continued this aim, having signed up to lots of interesting online courses. (In fact, I need to actually do some of them this year as I took on rather too many all at the same time!)  There is a Colourplay course, a sketchbook course, a mixed media collage course and a gratitude journal course, amongst a few others! 

I am becoming increasingly fond of watercolours and want to work through the abstract watercolour book I bought. I also would like to work through the collage book.  Over and above all that, I would like to focus on lino printing and gel printing more.

I continued to do the Wednesday slow drawing class with Amy Maricle and loved that quiet and relaxing hour, so that will be continued.  I am also enjoying using pen and watercolour together, so I hope to develop that further. I completed the Whimsies, Words and Watercolours course, with Joanne Sharpe and enjoyed learning how to create interesting lettering styles. Colour swatching continues to be one of my favourite things to do and this course included quite a lot, so I was in my element.  I have bought a few more supplies (of course!) but I have used many supplies I had but had forgotten about, so that has been good.  I am starting to notice what supplies I use the most and what I can possibly donate, which leads me nicely on to...

Get rid of or donate things I no longer want or need - I have done really well this year, probably halving my book collection and donating lots of things to charity, to let someone else enjoy them.  I need to continue this into 2025 as I still have far too much stuff.  I would like tidier areas and spaces so this will continue to be a focus.  It isn't something I find particularly easy to do (as I am a hoarder!), but I am encouraged by my progress so far.

Take more notice of nature - I have done this through gardening as well as when I am walking home after work, or walking anywhere, enjoying the changing seasons.  Birdsong is a delight to me and I never fail to be uplifted wherever I hear this. The mixed media art journaling course (Wanderlust) often focuses on nature, so this also encourages me to get out and be more aware.  I have pressed some flowers and leaves from the garden, in order to be able to use them in my journal.  

Sadly, I haven't visited any other gardens this year either, which is something I do enjoy, so I would like to put this right in 2025. I still have these two gardens on my list: York Gate near Leeds (described as a beautiful Arts and Crafts garden) and The Manor at Hemingford Grey, near Ely, (which was the home of Lucy M Boston who wrote the Green Knowe stories) so I must make an effort and get out there.

Those aims are now plans for 2025 and it will be interesting to review them again this time next year.

I hope 2025 will be a good one for us all.